Greece Euro Coins

The poorest member of the EU, Greece saw EMU as an essential step towards
achieving its strategic and economic ambitions. In spite of the
euro's weakness when Greece
entered the Eurozone on January 1 2001, opinion polls showed that some 70 per cent of
Greeks were in favour of membership. There was little attachment to the
drachma, as europe's second-oldest currency was linked in Greek minds
with economic and political backwardness. Greece leveraged the euro to encourage foreign direct investment with a
view to the country becoming a business and transport hub, linking south-east Europe with EU markets.

Greek euro coins feature a unique design for every one of the eight coins and they were all designed by Georgios
Stamatopoulos.

The minor coins depict Greek ships

The middle coins portray famous Greeks

The two large denominations show images of Greek history and mythology

All designs feature the 12 stars of the EU, the year of imprint and a tiny symbol of the Bank of Greece
(the anthemion flower). Uniquely, the value of the coins is expressed on the national side in the Greek
alphabet, as well as being on the common side in the Roman alphabet. The euro cent is known as the lepto (plural lepta)
in Greek, in reference to the former currency, the drachma, which was divided into 100 lepta.

The Greek 2 euro coin edge inscription

Edge

Type A

Type B

Hellenic Republic - Due to the process of inscribing the edge, two "types" occur

Mintmarks on Greek euro coins

2 Euro

1 Euro

10, 20, 50 Cents

1, 2, 5 Cents

S - Suomi (Finland)

S - Suomi (Finland)

E - España

F - France

Greece did not enter the Eurozone until 2001 and was not able to start minting coins as early as the other
eleven member states, so a number of coins circulated in 2002 were not minted in Athens but in Finland (€1
and €2 - mint mark S = Suomi), France (1c, 2c, 5c, 10c and 50c - mint mark F) and Spain (20c - mint mark E
= España). The coins minted in Athens for the Euro introduction in 2002 as well as all the subsequent Greek euro
coins do not carry any mint mark. Please take a look at The Greek national Mint.

Greece
2 euros -
Europa abducted by Zeus

Portrays a scene from a mosaic in Sparta (third century AD), showing Europa being abducted by Zeus, who has taken the form of a bull. In Greek mythology Europa was a beautiful Phoenician princess, daughter of Agenor and Telephassa. Zeus saw her gathering ... [ More ]

The owl, symbol of goddess Athena, as it was depicted on an ancient Greek tetradrachm (5th century b.C.). Athena was patron of the crafts, wisdom and battle. She became the patron goddess of the city of Athens, in a competition with Poseidon. They agreed ... [ More ]

Eleytherios Venizelos (1864-1936), one of the most prominent political figures in Hellas. He was a pioneer in social reform, a renowned diplomat and played a key role in modernising the Greek state and the victorious military campaigns of 1912-1920, liberating ... [ More ]

Ioannis Kapodistrias (1776-1831), a distinguished national and European politician and diplomat, who became the first Governor of Hellas (1830-31) following the Greek War of Independence (1821-27). After taking charge of the final stage of the revolution ... [ More ]

Rigas-Fereos (Velestinlis) (1757-1798) was a forerunner and leading figure of the Greek enlightenment and confederation. He was the first to visualize the liberation of the Balkans from the Ottoman Empire and was executed by the Ottomans in 1798 after ... [ More ]

Corvettes are small, maneuverable, lightly-armed warship, smaller than a frigate, and they were heavily used during the Hellenic liberation fight (1821-1827). When referring to sailing ships, a corvette is a ship-rigged sloop. Almost all modern navies ... [ More ]

The Athenian triere (or trireme) was the largest battle ship for 200 years, dating from the time of the Athenian democracy and Kimon (5th century b.C.- Marine Museum). Triremes were the dominant warship in the Mediterranean from around 700 to 300 BC, ... [ More ]